In our society strategic management has become one of the most frequent ideas.

Specialized literature contains a wide range of interpretations of this topic company strategic management, strategic management at the highest level of the state apparatus, strategic management in the armed forces and so on. Behind this wide spectrum of interpretations distinguished by aiming at people involved in public, civil or business site can be identified common and generally true elements of strategic management. Strategic management in the armed forces assumed importance during 1990s. In this period of development the sources of defence of particular states were significantly limited as a result of positive changes in safety environment (termination of global lock confrontation known as Cold War). It was a worldwide trend with the exception of only a few states. This situation has been creating overpressure to rationalization of the processes connected with both the construction and the use of the military forces. In the system men or manpower occupies position of high account or even a key position, I suppose. If we want to describe the importance of manpower in the process of strategic management in the Czech Army, it is necessary to summarize basic concepts of described questions. Conception of Strategy gives practical express to the process of the goal-directed aim of an organization in the long-term perspective. The main effort of people involved in this process is to generate and use resources of a state, an institution or an organization in order to achieve advantages over competitive subject and to satisfy customers expectations. Strategy has to reply flexibly to dynamic changes of the external environment where a state, an institution or an organization acts or will act. Strategy must be able to anticipate and this ability has to lead to the minimizing of the development jeopardy and to the maximizing of the developments that may result from them. Strategy in the conditions of the armed forces has its specific goals. Some real answers to quite number of questions have to be found to achieve these goals. For example what will the potential life, the strategy and the other states interests be like? What will the societys anticipation be like? Where will the development of the armed forces be directed at (conception of the operating use, its elaboration policy, requirements for the future abilities) in the long-term perspective? What missions and in what environment will the armed forces perform these missions in future depending on the probable development of the environmental safety (the operation conception of their probable use). Who is the potential adversary? What are the adversarys long-term objectives? Where is the development of his operation abilities directed at? What abilities (the organization structure, the system of command and control, the quality and quantity characteristics of the weapons, the weapon system, military material and manpower) should the armed forces have? What resources (financial, human and material) does the society have to release to create them? How will the engineering development influence the creation of the future abilities of the armed forces and their use? The people involved in the process of strategic management should take the dare to find answers to these questions. Strategic Management is generally connected with strategic decision making. Accepted decisions find the optimal answers to above-mentioned key questions and problems of a state, an institution or an organization. Strategic Management can be in general defined as the set of decisions and activities to provide long-term permanent development for a state, an institution or an organization and to create advantageous position of these entities considering the potential competitors. Decision making in the process of strategic management mustnt be purposeless. It must lead up to definition of real and workable aims. Necessary resources have to be separated to achieve these aims. Decision making has to create the best conditions to achieve these aims efficiently, economically and effectively. Realism of strategic management results from the identification of the current strong and weak points, the future threats and the opportunity for the development. The

fundamental element of strategic management of a state, an institution or an organization is the readiness and the facility of the top management to provide real and workable aims and visions and the ability to lead the controlled subjects to their progressive realization. The strategic management purpose is to solve problems connected with the development of an organization in the long-term perspective. The development of an organization is influenced by both its internal condition and the environment where it realizes its activities. Increasing complexity of the environment and mutual cohesion create brand-new opportunities but also risks that can be used for the development of the organization or can speed up the process of its failure. The strategic management aim is to accept such decisions to create assumptions to evaluate the current strong and weak points of the organization. It makes possible an identification of the future threats and the opportunities for the development. The decisions will lead to the organization realistic and workable long-term goals setting and to the definition of the approach to manage their efficient, economical and effective realization. In the public sector in contrast to the private sector the strategic management works with more complex spectrum of goals that may contradict each other. It is given by the fact that there are more people or organizations involved in the process e. g. state citizens, special interest groups, international organizations, business subjects and the difference of their sectional interests and goals they defend. The main goal in the process of the strategic management in the army is to create credible potnecial that will be able to eliminate succesfully the safety threats and the risks in the future. The process should make it possible to get over the deeprooted experience based on an oppinion that the armed forces get ready for the war that has already finished. The strategic managemanet process and the military potential generating should be in that case directed to the possible future use of the armed forces. Especially the conception of their future use should play the determined role while generating the operation abilities. The army potencial is in compliance with the doctrine of The Czech Army and it concists of the strategic effects of its conceptual (doctrines, set of rules, standard operation process), moral (motivation, effective management, qualified organiztion and development) and material branches (battle power given by the quality and the quantity of the human and material resources). As it was mentioned in the introduction, the central point in the strategic management process belongs to people, to manpower. People their knowledge and experience represent the main intellectual capital of each state, an institution or an organization. Not the military equipment, but the people fight in wars and they use their brain for fighting. In the strategic management process is possible to use different facilities, methods and models, but it necessary to start from a logic consideration based on the knowledge and the experience of the people involved. Man and his or her role in the strategic management process are irreplaceable. The qualities of the armed forces members will be in the strategic management process more and more confronted with the dynamic social development, the source limits, the complexity of the solved problems, the multinational environment. The armed forces members must be prepared to dispose reliable conclusion. They must be able to formulate effective strategies (to find effective problem solving) and they must be willing to realize them. In the strategic management process there is no room for anxious waiting for the decision and for the commanders to give an approval of their own plans,

because the future battle field will not be predominantly controled by the commands culture. The unifying item will be ideas, values and confidence. It takes a very long time to prepare individuals for the strytegic management. In the process of the years of service the armed forces members gradually strengthen their abilitiy to solve problems in the complex way and create an opinion about long-term results of their decisions. It seems to be obvious that the commander of the basic tactical element and the commander on the strategic level of the direction should dispouse of different abilities. In the history of the Czech Armed forces are several periods: from the building-up of the democratic state army after the formation of the independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 through complicated period form 1945 to 1948 and the sad normalization process in the seventies of last century to the rebuilding-up of the democratic state army after 1989. Fast variation in corps of officers was characteristic of particular above mentioned historical periods. It happened in the interest of the acceleration of political and social changes in the state and army. These variations always lead to the discontinuity in the preparation of appropriate abilities of the people involved in the strategic management process, they weakened the general level of the strategic thinking and they also decelerated enforcement of the rational long-term solutions in the building-up and the development of the state armed forces. After 1989 the strategic management in conditions of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia solved transformation of a huge army of numbering about three hundred thousand people into modern professional corps numbering about a few thousand people that would be able to provide in case of need the defence of the state in conjunction with allies and assist in an effective way in the international safety effort. This process was realized in conditions of nonexistent open solutions of the rising problems. It was very difficult to find traditional access and experience. Foreign models were used to solve these problems but they dont always agree with the special conditions of the Czech Republic. A paradox situation that appeared during the nineties of the 20th century and by the reason of that the solution of practical problems of the strategic importance nearly abstracted from theoretic knowledge. Empiricism and intuition of the senior managers represented the basic effect of the fast decision making processes. In addition the strategic management process was in progress in the environment of the unstable financing and fast personal changes in the top management (number of ministers, variation in the corps of generals and officers). We can claim that this model of the strategic management has been completely utilized. The problem solving of the perspective development of the armed forces of the Czech Republic will not do without analytic and prognostic support resulting form the latest theoretical knowledge in the area of management (methodology, methods, accesses). The manpower, its knowledge and experience will again play the most significant role.